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Buenos Aires & Argentina history

We have found that to get the best out of the great historical city of Buenos Aires it is helpful to understand the rich past of Argentina. In our experience, it is history that moulds a people and their culture and this is even more so in Buenos Aires than any other city we have visited over the course of the last 20 years.

The summary you read here gives just a glimpse of the important historical milestones from the XVI century to recent times. What you really begin to understand from this summary is that Buenos Aires for much of the time since the XVI century is Argentina.

Amerigo Vespucci may have visited the region now called Argentina in 1502 and discovered a landmass that is modern South America, went further south than ever imagined and his accounts have led to much controversy, as seafarers of the period crossing the south Atlantic thought they would reach Asia (the Indies).

Christopher Columbus had found great fame for his discovery and we believe that the Spanish throne looking to protect its interests in the region may have suppressed Vespucci’s ships’ log and his personal diaries before their full publication at a later time.

This deception made Vespucci seem dishonorable, trying to steal his Portuguese predecessors thunder and much written about this matter but two British accounts blame the Spanish throne - well of course.

In either case, Vespucci never went to sea again and Spain bestowed the new and very grand title of Chief Navigator of Spain upon him.

Christopher Columbus In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced an incredible work of the time, Universalis Cosmograpia, a world map on which he named a new continent ‘America’ a homophone of Amerigo Vespucci’s first name. The Spanish throne stated that a book published as a reference to the map held ‘dubious information.’ Even if he had failed to publish contemporaneous logs and diaries, his work would prove too accurate, even by modern standards. It is telling that the title America was dropped from later works.

Juan Díaz de Solís was an accomplished Portuguese seafarer and traitor to his Country. He fled to Spain before British Agents in Lisbon uncovered his treachery in 1504. After the death of Vespucci, he became Pilot Major in the Spanish navy and planned a major expedition to the area south of the Indies.

In 1515, Juan Diaz de Solis sailed straight for the east coast of South America and navigated directly to its largest and most important estuary, arriving at the Rio del la Plata in 1516, originally naming it Mar Dulce or Sweet Sea.

Some accounts state that his expeditionary force perished after an attack by local tribes, some accounts suggest the men were eaten alive – an unlikely scenario. More likely, this traitor, who may have stolen Vespucci’s thunder, probably suffered mutiny.

The Mar Dulce (the modern Río de la Plata) later played host to Magellan who arrived in 1520, followed by Sebastian Cabot in 1526.

Sebastian Cabot discovered the Paraná and Paraguay rivers and established the fort of Sancti Spíritus (the first Spanish settlement in the Plata basin). He also sent home reports of the presence of gold and silver.

In 1528, Cabot met another expedition from Spain under Diego García, commander of a ship from the earlier Solís expedition. Both Cabot and García had planned to sail for the Moluccas but altered their courses, influenced by excited tales of the Enchanted City of the Caesars (a variant of the Eldorado legend), which later incited many explorations and conquests in Argentina. While Cabot was preparing to search for the fabled city, a surprise attack by the Indians in September 1529 wiped out his Sancti Spíritus settlement.